Harvest Cake with Vanilla Cream

I. love. food. blogs.

I receive so much satisfaction from my daily blog browsing.  How do I find these awesome blogs?  Stumbleupon.com is AWESOME.  It knows me better than I know myself. :)  Anyway, I came across this amazing harvest cake, and much to my surprise, it is grain-free, dairy-free, and extremely low in sugar.  The only sugar in the cake is about 1/4 cup of honey and some natural sugars from apples and such.  You even get some veggies in and the end product is a dense, but moist cake perfect for the fall and winter seasons. 

I try only to have dessert once a week, but I could hardly call this an indulgence-though it tastes as good as any dessert I've ever had.  Not too sweet, and very filling, this beautiful cake convinced me that nice ingredients are worth the investment for an amazing cake.  Make this with a cup of coffee and it will give you a lovely post dinner treat (though there is no need for guilt with this cake).

Photo from roostblog.com

Harvest Cake (Makes 1-9inch cake, to make a layered cake like pictured above double the recipe)

• 3 cups almond flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup ghee (or oil of your choice) if you use ghee make sure it is melted
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup grated carrot
• 1 cup grated zucchini
• 1 cup chopped apple

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9inch cake pan (you can use a regular cake pan if you prefer, not the fluted one pictured above). In a bowl combine dry ingredients. In a seperate bowl combine wet ingredients. Pour wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir to incorporate. Pour into prepared cake pan and cook in oven for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Vanilla Cream (makes almost 2 cups)

• 1 cup raw cashews, soaked for three hours, water discarded
• 1/2 cup fresh apple juice
• 2 Medjool dates, pitted
• 1 TBS honey
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped and pod discarded

In a high speed blender combine ingredients until very smooth. Spread on cake or muffins.
Cake can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 4 days or in the fridge for 1 week.

Thank you roostblog.com for your beautiful recipes and this lovely cake!

Enjoy!